Okay, last night I attempted to photograph a bluegrass festival, the Uncle Dave Macon Days event.  This is the national clogging, banjo, and fiddle competition.  I will be submitting the photos I took to the event organizers at their request.  This is the first time I've tried to photograph a stage at night.  So I need feedback please.  I tried to use a variety of settings:  night, night landscape, night portrait, auto, and backlight.  I ended up throwing out about 1/2 the photos because they didn't turn out.  I am pretty sure the problem was that I didn't use a tripod, but I was running around backstage (it was crowded) and crawling up front, right in front of the stage.  So please comment, give suggestions, advice, whatever.
Thanks

narrowed world
This guy was concentrating SO hard on the music I think he had no idea all those people were around him.  I wanted the focus to be on him so I blurred the edges.  Too much?

Old time porch playing  
This event was held at a reconstructed pioneer village.  So there were people on porches everywhere.

Singing old songs
In addition to the playing, there was a lot of singing going on.

Backstage lights
This starts my night shooting.  

ropes of lights

Banjo pickin'

Young competitor

Flyin' fingers playing

My best friend Louis and I take a trip every year somewhere in the world.  A few years ago it was Ocktober fest in  Munich, Germany.   It was an amazing time, we saw the Glockenspeil, some great architecture and definitely some interesting historical sights like the Hofbrauhaus.  But we were there for Ocktoberfest.  The first sign were getting close was this crazy Horse ... around the corner from that was the Lowenbrau House located at the heart of the festival.  You'd never believe it but this is 9 o'clock AM and over 15K people are drinking!!!!  So, in all honesty se decided to go on a binge.  Well, that certainly deserves a
CHEERS! don't you think.
Next it was on a train going to Prague home of the famous Charles Bridge and great architecture street 1, street 2, square.   There were some absolutely beautiful colors , windows, statues,  flowers, trees and cars?
On the journey we met a friend Barb who took us through acorridor and up this incredibly long stairwell  to see an awesome  Church.   After that hike we went for a drink overlooking the squarefrom before.  We jumped a train to Amsterdam and as soon as we got there it was straight to a coffee shop where all memories where lost.

Thank god I have a camera.  

The Dancefloor

(hope it wasn't too long)

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Hard to get great shots with no Press Pass and stuck in a Crowd with their arms and heads bouncing in front of you but here goes.

The Lovely, The Talented, The Future Mrs. Peteyboy Mindi Abair

Jeff Golub Tears it up!

Former NBA Allstar and Now AllStar Jazz Bassist Wayman Tisdale

Trumpeter Rick Braun

The Current Mrs. Peteyboy's Favorite Guitarist Peter White

Saxaphone Great Richard Elliot

Jonathan Butler and Peter White Break it Down.

Mindi Says " I Can't Hear You!" She told me she loves me. Really, she did!

For those who care: Canon 20D, Canon 55 - 200 Zoom, Shot RAW

You can do it at a trot
You can do it at a gallup
You can do it real slow so your heart don't palpitate
So don't be late
Do the Puyallup

So goes the infectious jingle of the Puyallup Fair in Washington State. For the last few years I have visited the fair clutching my Nikon and soaking up the wonderful absurdity that abounds there.
One of my favorite parts of the fair are the collections that people accumulate. For example here is someone's collection of figurines playing the flute.
One of the oddest collections is Eldon's obsession with bread bag fasteners.
Some are lucky enough to win first prize
There is a great diversity of livestock there such as this chicken and a more patriotic breed
There are also cows and informative signs to teach us about livestock.
Sometimes people do very creative things with produce.
Yes much of the food has an air of magic about it as can be seen in this photo which I call fantastic sausage.
The people watching there is great too. Here are a few shots of some:
The Critics
Strangers
Playin' for Froglegs
Fun wih Gun
and finally The Carny

The lady and I went to the Northwest Folklife Festival last week. After some food, we hung out at the fountain.

First there was some guy playing in the water. Of course, there were others in the fountain as well, but the most interesting creature in the fountain was this dog

Last Friday, Shannon and I went to the annual Puyallup Fair (sorry if I mis-spell - no spell checker catches this). We saw ducks, and some cows. Course, seeing the cows reminded me of why I'm vegetarian, but seeing this reminds me of how fun it is to barbecue.

Oh yea - we saw lots of Roller Coasters